139 Shocking Facts About Instagram

By Megan Arevalo

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Did you know American actress and singer Selena Gomez has the single largest following on Instagram, amassing over 105 million followers with photos of her appearances and day to day life? This makes her more popular than footwear and sports apparel brand Nike (68 million), Soccer team Barcelona (42.5 million), and Barack Obama (11.5 million). No matter where you look in the statistics it's celebrities and big brands that dominate, proving that social media is an extremely successful tool for reaching target audiences. It's not just big brands either, some 70.7% of companies are expected to be using Instagram this year, and top brands are posting 4.9 times a week, an increase of more than half since 2015.

Of course using the platform and gaining followers is one thing, but getting quantifiable results from those followers is another. Just how successful is insta, which launched quite late to the game in 2010? According to data compiled by websitebuilder.org for a new infographic on interesting Instagram facts, roughly half of Instagram's 500 plus million followers follow at least one business. Is your business one of them? 70% of performance campaigns have been shown to increase online conversions and mobile app installs by a statistically significant amount. Have you ever run such a campaign? Around 5% of users can be inspired to visit a website, search the internet, go online shopping, or refer friends, based on Instagram posts. Are you attempting to reach these people?

If not then 2017 should definitely be the year, and Wednesdays at 5pm should be the time. According to the data this is when the platform's users are most engaged in liking and commenting on posts. In terms of demographics more women use the network than men (31% of female internet users to 21% of male users), and 55% of 18 to 29 year olds in the US actively have an account. This type of information can be invaluable to the savvy marketer. Here are some other insightful and interesting facts, the full list of which you can check out in the infographic below.

Over 80% of its users reside outside of the US, making it the perfect tool for global brands.

Mobile ad revenue alone is around $1.53 billion for 2016, suggesting that both paid exposure and organic exposure are considered important.

Many people may be pessimistic about how social media is affecting society, and sadly Instagram is second behind Facebook in claims of cyber-bullying. However the most popular Hashtag used on the platform is love and the number one emoji is the love heart!

Former US President Barack Obama is the most followed political leader in the world (11.5 million), but this pales in comparison to many celebrities and corporate brands. Who really represents the people?